


Time is a River We Can’t Stop

by under-latest-nostalgia (psionicTrickster)



Category: Descendants (2015), Disney - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, M/M, Non-realistic representation of a terminal illness sorry., Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Terminal Illnesses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 06:15:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4596021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psionicTrickster/pseuds/under-latest-nostalgia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a villain, hearing the words on their body meant one less connection to the world. They never thought that heartbreak would become associated with the words they were born with.</p>
<p>(aka. Soulmate AU where someone’s soulmate’s last words are tattooed on them.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time is a River We Can’t Stop

Carlos has always worn long sleeves because of how his soulmate tattoo wrapped around his wrist. In the Isle of the Lost, soulmates were looked down upon, so obviously anything marking their existence was covered up and never spoken of.

When Carlos came to Auradon, soulmate tattoos were also hidden, not because they didn’t believe in soulmates but because the thought of your soulmate dying was too sad and shattered the illusion of perfection in the world.

As a villain, Carlos never really minded his tattoo. Why would he be afraid of losing someone that shouldn’t be important to him in the first place? Villains don’t need soulmates.

Or at least, that’s what he thought until he was free from his villainous past.

That’s what he thought until the day Jay picked him up and kissed him suddenly when they won the Tourney championship.

That’s what he thought until Jay was holding his hand with a blush on his face and mumbling stuff about not wanting to lose Carlos in the crowd.

That’s what he thought until the moment he realized he was in love.

And suddenly, he was terrified of the words around his wrist.

He was terrified that someday Jay will scream, or whisper, or mumble, or yell the eight words he’d spent so long hiding.

“ _I fucking love you, please don’t leave me_.”

That is, until he forgot about them altogether.

 

* * *

 

Jay wasn’t sure when it started. It was simple things like Carlos waking up one day and yelling that “Holy shit, I forgot to feed Dude.” about five minutes after he just did and Jay rolling his eyes after telling him, “You just fed him you nerd.”

Carlos had blushed and Jay grinned at his small platinum-haired boyfriend thinking that it was probably just Carlos drifting off into his projects.

That is, until Carlos started forgetting bigger things.

Like how he wasn’t afraid of dogs anymore and that he’d been sleeping with Dude on his bed for months.

Like how they weren’t trying to steal the magical wand anymore.

They finally got him checked up when he forgot for a solid hour that they had been sent to Auradon.

That was when they found out he’d developed something called a brain tumor. Non-treatable, they said. Terminal. A few months at most.

Jay wasn’t sure when he cried the hardest in the months that passed. There were too many times to count.

 

* * *

 

Just like most other patients, Carlos had good days and bad days.

Jay was always scared to visit because Carlos could go from being the boyfriend he’d had for the past year to the scared, bullied kid he’d been on the Island.

The worst days was when he forgot who they were altogether but still talked about them.

(Jay cried the first time Carlos smiled at him blankly, “Hello? Are you a new nurse? Can you check if someone named Jay is gonna visit? Don’t tell him, but I’m pretty sure he’s my soulmate.”)

Mal visited a lot at first, until Carlos shied away from her in fear. Then she decided not to unless it was a good day.

(”M-m-mal? Wh-what do you want? D-did I do s-something? P-please don’t banish me.”)

Evie visited a lot and brought him diagrams and books and papers.

(”Wow! Thanks! You know, you look like you’d be the grown up version of this one princess that got banished a long time ago. Though she didn’t seem like the type to be interested in science. I wonder what happened to her?”)

Jay would wonder every day if he’d end up hearing the words scripted across his hips.

 

* * *

 

It was one of Those Days when it happened. It was a day when Carlos couldn’t recognize anyone. These days were becoming more frequent by the week.

Not only that but Carlos was spending more time asleep than awake. Getting up only to be drowsily mumbling to himself.

It had gotten to a point that the doctors had given him a feeding tube because he couldn’t stay awake to eat.

(At this point, Jay wasn’t sure if he liked it better when Carlos was awake and forgetting about him or asleep and looking like death.)

He’d been asleep for two days and had been drifting in and out of consciousness in the past hour.

Carlos was humming drowsily and mumbling about birds and dogs as Jay whispered to him.

Things like how the Tourney games were getting boring without Carlos cheering for him and how Evie had loads of new jackets for Carlos.

“Mal cried a little yesterday, did you think that would ever happen, baby? The ferocious Mal crying over you. Haha…. I miss you, you know? Even when you’re right here… shit Carlos…  _I fucking love you, please don’t leave me_.”

Carlos was drifting off when Jay was rambling on but he suddenly opened his eyes and frowned, looking like he was fighting to stay awake.

“J-Jay? What… are you talking… about?”

Jay snapped up at that. Staring at the boy that was falling in and out of consciousness.

“I.. I love you too, I’m not… going anywhere…”

(Jay felt the moment his heart break as Carlos drifted off again because he knew he wasn’t going to wake up.)

**Author's Note:**

> sorry not sorry.
> 
> Also posted on [under-latest-nostalgia.tumblr.com]


End file.
